The topic of this work was based on the assessment of aquatic systems quality related to the persistent metal pollution. The use of aquatic organisms as bioindicators of metal pollution allowed the obtaining of valuable information about the acute and chronic toxicity on common Romanian aquatic species and the estimation of the environment quality. Laboratory toxicity results showed that Cd, "s, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Zr, and Ti have toxic to very toxic efects on Cyprinus carpio, and this observation could raise concerns because of its importance as a ishery resource. The benthic invertebrates' analysis showed that bioaccumulation level depends on species, type of metals, and sampling sites. The metal analysis from the shells of three mollusk species showed that the metals involved in the metabolic processes (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Mg) were more accumulated than the toxic ones (Pb, Cd). The bioaccumulation factors of metals in benthic invertebrates were subunitary, which indicated a slow bioaccumulation process in the studied aquatic ecosystems. The preliminary aquatic risk assessment of Ni, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, "s, and Zn on C. carpio revealed insigniicant to moderate risk considering the measured environmental concentrations, acute and long-term efects and environmental compartment.Keywords: metals, ish, crustaceans, benthic invertebrates, toxicity, LC 0, M"TC, bioaccumulation, risk © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. . IntroductionMetals are constantly released in aquatic systems from natural and anthropic sources such as industrial and domestic sewage discharges, mining, farming, electronic waste, anthropic accidents, navigation traic as well as climate change events like loods (Figure ) [1, 2]. Moreover, metals are easily dissolved in water and are subsequently absorbed by aquatic organisms such as ish and invertebrates inducing a wide range of biological efects, from being essential for living organisms to being lethal, respectively. In spite of the fact that some metals are essential at low concentrations for living organisms, such as (i) micronutrients (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Mo, Cr, and Se) and (ii) macronutrients (Ca, Mg, Na, P, and S) at higher concentrations, they could induce toxic efects disturbing organisms' growth, metabolism, or reproduction with consequences to the entire trophic chain, including on humans [3]. In addition, the nonessential metals such as Pb, Cd, Ni, "s, and Hg enhance the overall toxic efect on organisms even at very low concentrations. ...

No abstract

The aquatic environment is under increased pressure by pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) due to anthropogenic activities. In spite of being found at very low concentrations (ng/L to μg/L) in the environment, PhACs represent a real danger to aquatic ecosystems due to their bioaccumulation and long-term effects. In this study, the presence in the aquatic environment of six non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, diclofenac, acetaminophen, naproxen, indomethacin, and ketoprofen), caffeine, and carbamazepine were monitored. Moreover, their aquatic risk and ecotoxicity by three biological models were evaluated. The monitoring studies performed in Romania showed that all studied PhACs were naturally present at concentrations >0.01 μg/L, pointing out the necessity to perform further toxicity tests for environmental risk assessment. The toxicity studies were carried out on aquatic organisms or bacteria and they indicated, for most of the tested PhACs, an insignificant or low toxicity effects: lethal concentrations (LC50) on fish Cyprinus carpio ranged from 42.60 mg/L to more than 100 mg/L; effective concentrations (EC50) on planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna ranged from 11.02 mg/L to more than 100 mg/L; inhibitory concentrations (IC50)/microbial toxic concentrations (MTC) on Vibrio fischeri and other bacterial strains ranged from 7.02 mg/L to more than 100 mg/L. The PhAC aquatic risk was assessed by using the ratio between measured environmental concentration (MEC) and predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) calculated for each type of organism. The average of quotient risks (RQs) revealed that the presence of these compounds in Romania's aquatic environment induced a lower or moderate aquatic risk.

No abstract

This study, analyzes the benthic macroinvertebrates community structure and composition in order to assess the ecological status as required by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Macroinvertebrates are the appropriate indicators to describe habitat heterogenity and the water bodies ecological status by turning the allochtone material into biomass, which is then transferred to the upper trophic levels. Moreover, the macroinvertebrates have the capacity to integrate in their structure the effects of environmental pressure at a temporal and spatial scale. In this particular case, the spatial scale is represented by the Danube Delta, Saint (St) Gheorghe Branch with a length of 112 km, carrying 22% of the Danube flow. The samples include all the organisms life cycle and were collected each month from July to October 2012. The structure and composition of macroinvertebrates were the main target of this study. Furthermore, the structural response of macroinvertebrates to environmental pressure was characterized by quantitative and qualitative analysis. Also, the ecological status was assessed by a surface water bodies methodology in accordance with WFD. This present study brings new information of the benthic community structure and dynamics, reflects the long-term effect of environmental pressure, and it is an effective tool for evaluating integrative ecological status of lotic aquatic systems.

This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of Mentha piperita under Cd, Pb, Ni, and As soil contamination and their transfer from soil in plants as well as translocation in the roots/stems/leaves system compared with a control without metal addition. The mint seedlings were exposed for a three-month period using two metal mixtures in the same concentrations such as AsCd and AsCdNiPb (23.7 mg/kg As, 5 mg/kg Cd, 136 mg/kg Ni, and 95 mg/kg Pb). The results of metal concentration in plants showed that Cd, Ni, and Pb were accumulated in different parts of the plant, except for As. In plants organs, the order of metal accumulation was roots > stems > leaves. No significant impact on the growth, development, and chlorophyll content compared to the control was observed in the first month of exposure. After three months of exposure, phytotoxic effects occurred. Generally, the transfer coefficients and translocation factors values were less than 1, indicating that Mentha piperita immobilized the metals in root. The laboratory experiments highlighted that for a short period of time, Mentha piperita has the capacity to stabilize the metals at the root level and was a metal-tolerant plant when using a garden rich-substrate.

The paper presents a comparative bioaccumulation study between the growth of chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla L.) exposed to toxic metals (Cd, Ni and Pb) and the growth of same plant species unexposed to metals. The soil was contaminated within three independent experiments with Cd, Ni and Pb at the intervention threshold value for sensitive use. Each of the toxic metal was added by watering the seeds, and subsequently the germinated plants. The experiments targeted the effects of soil pollution on the growth of chamomile during three months period. The results showed that in the first month of the study, all three metals accumulated in plants. After the seeds germination and plant growth, high Cd concentration in chamomile plants was detected. Moreover, Ni and Pb were detected in soil in the percentage of 96%. Overall, it was observed that chamomile plants were Cd accumulators at the tested concentrations of 6 mg/kg with no phytotoxic effects. Matricaria Chamomilla L. could be used in phytoremediation of polluted soils, with limitations of use for human consumption, except for the extracts.

The paper presents an assessment study on the determination of total mercury from biological samples, using Cold-Vapour Atomic Absorption Spectrometry technique which was applied on three certified reference materials: Tuna Fish ERM-CE464, Fly ash BCR-176R and Sandy Soil ERM-CC018. Recovery rates ranged from 100 to 108.8%. The method was applied on contaminated biological real samples, respectively various fish organs (Cyprinus carpio and Carrasius gibelio) as well as two types of bivalves (Dreissena sp. and Anodonta sp.) collected from Olt River after the wastewater discharge of a chemical platform. The preliminary results showed that total Hg content was above the limit allowed by the World Health Organization (0.5 mg/kg) in muscle and spleen samples harvested from carp specimens. In benthic invertebrate specimens, the Hg content ranged from 0.19 to 0.52 mg/kg dry matter in internal organs, while Hg value in shells was below the method quantification limit.